HYDE: CAN ONE OF JAPAN'S BIGGEST ROCK ACTS BREAK BIG IN THE US?
Based on its San Francisco debut at the Fillmore Thursday the Japanese band HYDE may be hard rock's answer to baseball's Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui.
That is, superstars in an American game who are considered the equals of their American peers, and whose country of origin is secondary to their abilities to entertain.
With a 90-minute set of original, dark and glistening hard rock, metal, and a couple of ballads, this tight quintet's sold out local debut was mesmerizing and primal, with more than a few similarities to David Bowie's U.S. debut decades back.
And, while so many Japanese musical exports are treated as novelties and aberrations, representatives of a culture at once foreign, intriguing and endlessly confusing, HYDE made a huge step toward breaking down barriers by singing all of his songs in English.
(HYDE, pronounced haido, is both the name of the band, and the lead singer.)
It took a long time for Japanese stars to break into baseball's major leagues, and it's taken even longer for itsmusical stars to break through to the point where they are as big in the U.S. as American rockers are in Japan.
The band Mono has grown a small but ardent U.S. following, but because that trio plays only instrumentals, it is never going to make the big time because on the pop charts, lyrics are as important as tunes.
HYDE's lyrics were part of what drew almost 1,000 fans to the Fillmore from all over the U.S., and to three other sold-out shows in California, at the House of Blues in Anaheim and Los Angeles, and Slim's in San Francisco.
(PHOTO: fans outside the Fillmore)
His just-released album, "Faith" (Tofu Records), featuring playing by Nine Inch Nails bassist Danny Lohner and the Cult's drummer, Scott Garrett, takes on religious themes, not the least of which is the cover drawing, featuring the singer in a crown of thorns, posed as Jesus.
But don't think this is in anyway a Christian album. The lyrics are character studies from a man who describes himself as interested and respectful of religious imagery, but not religious.
In "Jesus Christ," which opened the Fillmore show, HYDE sings from the point of view of a parent watching his child suffer, and begs God to take his life instead. It's the painful stuff of much U.S. modern metal, with a more thoughtful spin.
"I'm not religious, but I like the designs and concepts and thoughts of religion," said the singer, born Hideto Takarai. He won't reveal his age, and he has an androgynous, ageless look that brings to mind Michael Jackson, but fan websites list him as 37.
His surprising voice, coming from a thin figure who barely scrapes 5 feet, mines the rich low tones of David Bowie, with the urgency of the Ziggy Stardust days.
His only cover song in the fast-paced set, was a tortured "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," the 1967 Beatles song, even more surprising because in the preshow interview, HYDE claimed not to know much "old music."
He sings in English, he said through a translator in the Fillmore's poster room, because that is the language of the rock he grew up on. The first disc he bought, when he was 14, was Billy Joel's "The Stranger," and his love of rock continued with Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Linkin Park and Journey.
He started playing guitar at 17 and was in several bands, the third of which, L'Arc-en-Ciel, sold 34 million records over the last 10 years and played Japan's biggest arenas. He went solo in 2001, he says, to try out ideas without having to get the approval of the rest of the band.
He's had two number one hits, including "Countdown," which was dubbed onto the Japanese version of the American movie, "Stealth." He's also appeared in films, the 2004 science fiction thriller, "Moon Child" and the 2006 drama, "The Last Quarter."
Tickets to the four U.S. debut shows sold out in minutes and fans, many of whom were women in their teens and 20s, who slept on the street overnight at the Fillmore to get a good vantage point in the general admission hall.
They included 25-year-old USC medical school student Qudug Wu, who said she was at the front of the line because she loved the singer's lyrics, not his looks.
"I'm not a fan-girl," she emphasized. "I could have spent my vacation doing research or relaxing, but I stayed out overnight to see his passion."
Born in China, and studying in the U.S. for the past four years, she said she was attracted to the spiritual premises of his songs. She didn't know what he was saying, at first, but was stirred by his delivery. When she looked up the lyrics, she found that they matched the images he had inspired in her head.
"I feel sad when I see so many women in line," she said. "It's not about sex; it's spiritual. He's so good looking, but it's not about his looks."
Laura Harvey, 22, flew from Illinois for the show. A fan of Japanese anime shows, she got into the music after seeing HYDE's movies.
"A lot of Americans have no idea that there are a lot of talented rock and pop and heavy metal musicians in Japan," she said.
Vallejo musicians Zachary David Harris, 23 and Joshua Theo Wooley, 25, found HYDE on the Internet, where they regularly searched Japanese music and horror film sites for inspiration for their band, Folklord.
"We both like adventurous music," said Harris. "I like metal, and Frank Zappa, and anything different. I usually go to concerts by famous or quasi famous bands. It's good to see a band that has no say here, that hardly anyone knows. This is America."
Wooley had been a HYDE fan for three years after hearing a song on the web, and was shocked to see that the exotic Japanese performer was playing in his backyard.
"I saw it on the Fillmore schedule and I thought it couldn't be the same HYDE, but it was. I couldn't believe I was going to get to see him."
長到我冇乜心機睇, 雖然係英文, 但係都係要用腦= =轉貼出黎果個飯話果個interviewer幾乎對hyde一無所知, 不過告訴那飯一些事, 例如…[以下的文字, 我只是copy, 把字換成繁體, 懶得改..歐走, 飄走~~]hyde買的第一張cd是Billy Joel 的 "The Stranger,"我還問了他那些英文歌詞是不是hyde自己寫的，他說是hyde寫的日文，找人翻譯了，然後hyde重新審查修改過的。然後最可愛的是，他問hyde多大了，hyde同學拒絕回答，他就來我們這裏找答案，一聽到37，下巴都快跌到地上，因為和他差不多年紀，然後感歎hyde保養得真好之類。還有，這位40左右壯碩的大叔也被hyde的外表震撼到了，覺得他十分美麗年輕，還說he seems to be a really nice guy. ^-^ 但是他一開始顯然覺得fans絕大多數是女孩子乃是因為he is a sex symbol, 我費了好大的勁兒讓他明白在這裏的人是真心熱愛他的音樂，他的外表反而會讓第一眼看到他的男性fans有偏見，成為瞭解他喜愛他的障礙呢。
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